Free To Be
by JustJasper
Summary: For Kink Meme IV: body hair appreciation. Mild smut.


Emily Prentiss' mother had first told her daughter to shave her armpits when she was eleven years old. There had been barely any hair there at the time, but her mother had told her that it wasn't "hygienic or ladylike" to have underarm hair. Emily, being a smart girl had quickly learnt that claiming the former was complete rubbish, and the latter was a result of beauty standards she'd never truly understood. When she'd rebelled, and the alternative clothing, music tastes, makeup, piercings and a tattoo had come, refusing to shave became part of that. It was her body, and she had always had the clear sense that only she got to make choices for it.

She eventually started to shave again as she got older, conforming to the pressure to make her life easier and avoid judgement, but there was always a feeling of disappointment. She was a strong, confident, attractive woman, but it seemed most people still only wanted to tolerate powerful women when they still conformed to beauty standards in some way. Why did she have to shave not to be the target of "feminist dyke" jibes?

She was basically both, admittedly. She was in a committed but discreet relationship with another woman, not her first, but in the back of her mind she hoped the last, the last which would last forever. She could certainly be considered a feminist, too, although she wasn't active in political circles any longer. She saw every day the effects of a system that rewarded men's often predatory sexuality and punished women for theirs. How many times had they been investigating a killer who targeted prostitutes and heard comment after comment from public and law enforcement alike that these women deserves it, or could be blamed for it somehow? It seemed that wanting women to be treated equally was only an acceptable viewpoint if it was warped to fit around what best suited men or middleclass straight white women.

She'd still been shaving out of habit when she'd started dating Penelope Garcia. The only person on their team who officially knew, though they weren't always sure the others hadn't guessed, was Morgan, who was simply happy that his best friend and his baby girl were happy.

Shaving had come up several months after they began dating, as they started to spend more time at each other's apartments, often whole weekends. They'd been in the bath together, Penelope shaving Emily's legs for her as she had just done, when Emily had absent-mindedly sighed that her legs were the only part of her she liked shaving.

"Really?" Garcia had said, kissing her lover's big toe. "Me too."

Emily had considered the woman, debating whether to make further comment.

"I hate shaving my armpits..." she said tentatively, pretending to look at the back of a shampoo bottle.

"Oh god, me too." Garcia had agreed. Their eyes had met, considering each other, waiting to see who would broach the subject first. It had ended up being Penelope. "You know, I don't mind if you don't want to shave."

"And I don't mind if you don't want to, either." Emily agreed quickly. Their eyes had lingered on each other, but no more discussion came of it. That had been almost six months earlier.

Emily kissed over the soft skin of Penelope's torso, stroking a hand up her side to cup one of her full breasts. The blonde sighed lavishly, stretching out her arms above her head amongst the pillows on Emily's bed. Emily smiled as it revealed the soft patches of blonde hair under her arms, silky and downy to the touch, which Emily couldn't help. Garcia giggled, seriously ticklish as she was.

"How did it go, sex siren?" Penelope asked, nibbling at her lip as Emily straddled her hips. The other woman grinned and raised her arms above her head, stretching out and showing the cute tufts of dark hair below her arms. She gave her breasts a little shake for good measure, and Garcia hummed appreciatively, one hand coming up the other's stomach to pinch a nipple between thumb and finger.

"I was kinda nervous." Emily said, peering around at her own underarm. "Morgan noticed the tank, complimented the guns," Emily posed her arms, flexing her muscles, while Garcia made a swooning noise, "but I was too scared to tell him why I really wore a tank top today."

"Did anyone notice?" Penelope asked, shifting her hips a little below her lover, watching Em's eyes flutter and feeling her press her hips down a little.

"Reid." She lowered her arms, reaching out to squeeze her girlfriend's breasts appreciatively as she pressed her mound of black curls against Penelope's own fair, adorably curly ones. "When we were at the crime scene. When I caught him staring he went into fact mode, something about body hair used to attract males by some people some time, and of course all I could think was 'males are the very last thing I'm interesting in attracting'."

Garcia grinned, and then pursed her lips in invitation. Prentiss got the idea and leaned forward, kissing those soft pink lips eagerly.

"Some cop saw, too." she said, kissing down Penelope's neck and across her chest to one glorious fleshy breast. "While I was cuffing the suspect. Gave me a really dirty look."

"Did you give him the Emily Prentiss death stare?" Pen asked, drawing in a quick breath as Emily sucked a nipple into her mouth. The dark haired woman nodded around her task, worrying the matching bud with her fingers.

"JJ noticed, too." she continued, trailing kisses down Penelope's soft belly. "Called me brave. I can't believe it's a big deal..."

She had reached her lover's vulva, cropped with little swirls of blonde hair, almost angelic on her flush skin. Emily sighed in appreciation, pushing the woman's thighs apart and inhaling the sweet heady scent of her cunt.

"I was going to show Morgan, see how he reacted." Emily said, watching Penelope squirm from the hot breath ghosting over her sensitive folds. "But since you're convinced he's fucking Reid, I didn't think a bit of armpit hair was going to shock him."

"I swear to god they're fucking." Penelope said, grinning down at her lover. "But it still might have shocked him, Reid's probably hairless..."

"Sexy as that thought is..." Emily said, "I don't want you thinking of them when I stick my tongue in you. Back to me, Penny."

"Of course, sexy thing." Penelope breathed, folding her arms behind her head and showing of those cute little patches of hair at her underarms again. Emily grinned, finally dropping her eye line as she nuzzled her nose in her lover's curls, and darted her tongue out against her lust-swollen clit.


End file.
